


The Darkest Hour

by foreverfelicityqueen (stydiasredstring)



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 4x09 spec, 4x10 spec, F/M, Gen, Hospitals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2015-12-02
Packaged: 2018-05-04 12:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5333933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stydiasredstring/pseuds/foreverfelicityqueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He couldn’t hear the people around him, though he knew they were all there. Talking back and forth about what happened. One of them sounded like a doctor, maybe. He couldn’t be sure. But he kept picking up on phrases. Ruptured spleen, internal bleeding, contusions, fluid in the lungs. They swirled together, gouging at his head like knives.</p>
<p>This is a dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Darkest Hour

He couldn’t hear the people around him, though he knew they were all there. Talking back and forth about what happened. One of them sounded like a doctor, maybe. He couldn’t be sure. But he kept picking up on phrases. Ruptured spleen, internal bleeding, contusions, fluid in the lungs. They swirled together, gouging at his head like knives.

_This is a dream._

It was the only thing he could think to repeat to himself over and over again. Because it had to be. They had already been through hell and back for each other, and he refused to believe that this was real. That his whole world was dangling in the hands of doctors and people he’d never met.

He needed to wake himself up, and he tried. Tried to remember just how he ended those dreams on the long nights in Nanda Parbat. Because this was just another one of those. And he’d wake up, in bed curled next to the love of his life and everything was going to be okay.

Someone moved in front of him, and he could barely focus enough to look up to their eyes.

She was a stranger, standing there in a bright scrub top. Colors that made no sense in the darkness of his dreams.

“Mr. Queen?” she questioned pulling something from her pocket. “The ER doctors took this off before surgery. I wanted to make sure I got it back to you.”

He caught the glint off the diamond before he really registered what it was. But once he had he felt his insides crumble.

He held out his hand letting her drop the object there. The ring was covered in dirt, but still it seemed to glow under the fluorescent lights. He closed his fingers around the ring, letting it dig into the flesh of his hand and he knew. He knew he wasn’t dreaming. Not even in his dreams could he ever be this cruel to himself.

He stood from his seat, the movement catching John’s eye. And his friend was by him in a second.

“I’m gonna get some air,” Oliver responded to the unspoken question. But John just shook his head.

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“I don’t need my bodyguard, Dig.” He knew his tone was harsh, more than the man could ever deserve, but he didn’t care. Not right then. “I just need a minute.”

“I know that look,” John whispered, making sure none of their friends were listening in. “When bad things happen you go off and do something stupid or reckless. Most of the times both. But Felicity doesn’t need you getting yourself killed right now Oliver. She needs you here.”

“For what?” he seethed. “What reason could she need me waiting in a hospital, when the man responsible for this is out there still breathing? Darhk is going to pay for this.”

“I don’t disagree with the sentiment, I disagree with the method,” John grabbed his arm, pulling him around the corner. “You go after him, then what? What happens when he kills you? What do you expect me to tell her when she wakes up?”

Oliver didn’t reply, just slumped against the wall. He shook his head looking up at John. “I can’t lose her.”

“And you’re not going to,” his friend said, gripping his shoulder. “Felicity is strong and resilient. But she’s gonna need you to be strong too. She’s gonna need you to remember how much she’s already fought for this life, and how that fight isn’t something that can be knocked out of her that easily.”

“She could die,” Oliver looked away, feeling the rage boiling in him. “The last time I was this close to losing her--”

“Don’t go there,” John cut him off. “You do not get to back away from this because you’re scared of what the bad guys could do. You already went through this crap with her. And it nearly destroyed both of you.”

He knew John was right. After everything they’d been through there was no way Oliver could walk away from her. Not now, not ever.

Movement shifted at the end of the hall, and Oliver turned to face the newcomer.

“I heard about the accident, Mr. Queen,” Darhk stood there, a simple smile on his face. “I do hope condolences are not in order.”

The only thing that kept Oliver from lunging at the man was John’s strong arm practically digging into his shoulder, rooting him in place.

“Get the hell out of here,” Oliver growled, his bow hand tensing next to him.

He knew John had a 9mm strapped to his back, and maybe if he was quick enough he could get a shot off. But he knew he couldn’t do that. They were in a hospital, and he wasn’t the Green Arrow, not right then. He was just Oliver Queen, a man who was running for mayor. He couldn’t let Darhk in on the truth.

“I warned you Mr. Queen, the bay is a dangerous place,” Darhk took a step forward, and Oliver felt his friend’s hand gripping his shoulder tighter. “You should be thankful that your fiancée is still breathing.”

“I think you need to leave,” John said, leveling the man with a glare.

Darhk glanced over to John with an almost dismissive look on his face. “Of course. Family only, I understand. We’ll talk later, Mr. Queen about you stopping your work at the bay. Give my best to Miss Smoak.”

He was gone almost as quickly as he’d appeared, and Oliver couldn’t help the sickening drop his stomach did.

“He thinks you’re going to back down on your proposal,” John noted, finally letting go. “Is he right?”

Oliver shook his head. He couldn’t answer that. “I need to see her.”

“You heard the doctors, she might not be awake for a while.”

“I don’t care.” He turned to look at John, and he knew his friend could see the desperation on his face.

John nodded and walked with him back to the hall outside Felicity’s room. A few less people scattered around then when they had walked off.

“Your friend Barry and Thea went to get coffee,” Lance said from his seat right next to Felicity’s door. He’d been sitting there for the better part of the last twelve hours, ever insistent that Felicity needed a police presence outside her door. “They said they’d bring you guys back some.”

“Where’s Donna?” Oliver asked, because when he’d gotten up she’d been next to Lance.

“She went to call work, ask for a few more days off,” he replied.

Oliver nodded, as he eyes zeroed in on the door. He hadn’t went in yet. And he wasn’t too ashamed to admit the reason why. He was scared, terrified even, that seeing her like that could make things worse.

When he entered the room, he could hear the beeping of the machines. He knew he’d end up committing the sound to memory, playing it over and over in his deepest nightmares, but it was no comparison to the sight of Felicity.

She was hooked and stuck with so many things, he was hesitant to move forward, but he steeled himself and kept going until he was next to her.

She looked so pale and broken, lying there wrapped in a paper thin hospital gown, that rose and fell ever so slightly. Her hair was a mess, and her makeup was long gone. But to Oliver she still looked beautiful. Because she was breathing and alive. Darhk took a shot at them, at him, but he hadn’t won. Because Felicity’s heart was still beating, and as long her’s was so was his.

He reached for her hand, making sure he didn’t disturb a single wire or tube, as he ran his thumb along her knuckles.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he whispered, and he wasn’t sure of the words were for her or him. “And I know you need to heal, but Felicity, I need you to wake up soon. Because I can’t do this without you.”

He made himself a space next to her on the bed as he carefully sat next to her. “You act like I’m strong, everyone does. But Felicity, I’m not. Not when I’m alone, not when I’m without you. John had to literally hold me in place to keep from going after Darhk. And I honestly don’t think even that would work a second time.”

He leaned over her pressing a kiss against her forehead. “I promise you that I won’t do anything stupid, but you gotta promise me you’ll wake up. Because we need to take him down, together.”

She didn’t reply, no words or sounds were made besides those of the monitors. But he felt her fingers curling around his own, and he knew what it meant. She was with him no matter what.

  
  



End file.
